Training Diary 13 January 2005

Since the person that I normally share lessons with wasn’t riding tonight, I asked my trainer if she would mind schooling Kip rather than giving us a lesson, as I was interested in hearing what she thought about him. He moved out very nicely for her (aside from the time that he stopped dead to poop, being convinced that he can’t move and poop at the same time, and she took a strip of hide off him for refusing to move until he was done), and she even got him to canter. He cantered on the short sides, as well as the long sides, which surprised us both.

She thinks that I’m holding onto his head too much, since I ride him a lot rounder than she does. She was letting him travel with his neck like a goose, but he was moving very freely. For a while, she said to not worry about him being round, and just make him move – eventually he’ll find his own balance, bring that trailing read end under him (which is what I’m trying to do), and then I can start to make him come down on the bit more.

She liked him a lot; she thinks he has a lot of potential, and I’ll just have to be patient for a long time. He’s very big, very immature, and will be a clumsy, sprawling teen for a while yet.